The reader must not suppose that this has no connection with "Baptist History." It has. We found the records of the last period scant and fragmentary. Why? The world was asleep, intellectually and morally asleep. Rome had administered an opiate, and Europe lay slumbering in her lap. It is not surprising that under such circumstances it is difficult to spell out the annals of thought and freedom. Baptist sentiments can hardly be understood, much less appreciated, in such dozing days as those. They require for their full development a time of mental stir. They rejoice in those collisions which produce sparks and flames, and thus illuminate the nations. They have a tendency to produce them.

Let us proceed, then, to show how enlightenment sprang up and brought forth fruit in the "Revival Period."

It began with the Scholastic Philosophers and Divines. "The scholastic theology," says Mr. Hallam, "was, in its general principle, an alliance between faith and reason, an endeavour to arrange the orthodox system of the Church, such as authority had made it, according to the rules and methods of the Aristotelian dialectics, and sometimes upon premises supplied by metaphysical reasoning." The scholastic philosophy, according to the same author, "seems chiefly to be distinguished from the theology by a larger infusion of metaphysical reasoning, or by its occasional inquiries into subjects not immediately related to revealed articles of faith." These philosophers and divines are often described as learned triflers who wasted their time and their energies in speculations, inquiries, and disputes, which might have been as well or better left alone; and their ponderous folios, scarcely ever read, but mouldering away in public libraries, are pointed at as monuments of laborious folly. But this is a partial, perhaps a prejudiced,

State of Europe during the Middle Ages, chap. ix, part ii. See also Bishop Hampden's Bampton Lectures on "The Scholastic Philosophy."

verdict. It is true that these men did perplex their brains with questions which they could not answer, and sometimes, like the angels Milton speaks of, "found no end, in wandering mazes lost." It is also true that their theological investigations were conducted in a preposterous manner, since they strove to reason out their theology by the aid of the Aristotelian philosophy, instead of deriving it from the pure fountain of Holy Writ. And it must be granted that in their philosophical disquisitions they generalized and distinguished very much in the dark, and that the student of their works is constantly thrown into inextricable doubt and difficulty by their twisted reasonings, the cloudy verboseness of their style, and the barbarous unintelligible epithets they were in the habit of employing. Yet, with all these deductions, it cannot be denied that the school-men rendered great service in their day. There are bright gems in their writings, though hidden beneath much rubbish. If you sometimes meet with the uncouth, the ridiculous, or the hopelessly obscure, there are also vestiges of the profound and glimpses of the sublime. Their powerful intellects (for some of them were literary giants) were devoted, for the most part, to the upholding of Popery, and on that account we may not be sorry for the oblivion into which they have

But they taught men to think, although their methods were as rude as were the mechanical tools of the times in which they lived, and the process of learning was consequently slow. Their influence gradually extended, till at length it reached those who were more desirous of applying to practice the knowledge already acquired than of striking out new paths, which might after all lead into a wilderness. There was an imperceptible and general sharpening of the human mind. The number of independent inquirers continually increased, and the circle of information was widened. Then, improved methods of mental training were devised.

The establishment of numerous schools and universities was the result.

The following is a list of the principal school-men, with the curious and whimsical titles given them :

William Occam, Singular and Invincible Doctor
Archbishop Bradwardine, Profound Doctor

John Tauler, Sublime and Enlightened Doctor
Durand of St. Pourcain, Most Resolute Doctor

Died, A.D.

1164

1245

1274

1274

1294

1294

1304

1308

1347

1349

1361

1383

1425

Peter de Alliaco, The Eagle of France, and the Maul of Errorists
John Gerson, Most Christian Doctor

1429

Universities have been mentioned. The University of Paris was founded A.D. 1206. Eight others in different parts of Europe, including Oxford and Cambridge, were founded in that century. The next century was the age of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and our own Wycliffe and Chaucer; sixteen universities were founded in that century. Between the commencement of the fifteenth century and the close of the "Revival Period," twenty-nine more were added to the list. Great numbers of students attended these institutions. Many of them did not learn much, and in all cases the course of study was very limited. But assuredly the poet's affirmation-"A little learning is a dangerous thing "-is not to be regarded as oracular. The students of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were undoubtedly inferior to those of the present age: but was it not better to get "a little learning" than to remain in ignorance? And may it not be fairly inferred that the

universities and schools of the times now under consideration (for schools also increased and extended in every direction), exerted a highly beneficial influence on society at large?

Printing was invented about the middle of the fifteenth century; and the study of classical literature, which had been revived more than a hundred years previously, received a powerful impetus after the fall of Constantinople, when educated Greeks emigrated into Italy and France, and the love of learning was everywhere diffused.

SECTION II.

Paulicians in France and Italy-General View of the Reform MovementVarious Names given to the Reformers-Sentiments held by themFalse Charge of Manichæism-Their Activity-Reinerus Saccho's Account.

WE

E have spoken in a previous chapter of the Paulicians-their labours-their sufferings-and their various dispersions. Many of them sought a home in Italy and France, about the close of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century. There they met with congenial spirits. Right-minded men in those countries had protested from time to time, though unavailingly, against Romish encroachments. The coming of the Paulicians inspired them with fresh courage, and from the middle of the eleventh century we read of a succession of valorous attacks upon those errors, superstitions, and vices, which not only abounded in less enlightened parts, but disgraced even the metropolis of Christendom.

These dissidents formed a numerous and compact body in Italy, where the Papal yoke chafed the necks of the people and made them restive. Had it not been for the

support derived from the Imperial power, Italy would have been Protestant before the Reformation. The success of Arnold of Brescia was an impressive warning. In the year 1143, he established a new form of government in Rome, which wrested the civil power out of the hands of the Popes, and compelled them to content themselves with the management of ecclesiastical affairs. That the attempt was ill-advised, because society was not sufficiently prepared for it, seems evident; but the continuance of the new order of things for eleven years, and the alacrity with which the people adopted an anti-Papal policy, were remarkable signs of the times.

Peter of Bruys began his career as a reformer in the year 1104, and laboured twenty years in the good work, chiefly in the South of France. He was followed by Henry of Lausanne, who preached the Word of God with great success in the same district.

In the year 1170, Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, renounced his secular engagements, and devoted himself to the revival of religion. He procured a translation of the New Testament into the French language, and spent his life in toilsome journeys among the people, during which he circulated portions of the Scriptures, preached, and by other methods sought to promote true godliness. Being joined by a number of like-minded men, their united efforts produced an extensive reformation. The "Poor Men of Lyons," as they were called, because they sacrificed worldly prospects and lived in poverty, became a numerous and formidable body. But persecution scattered them. Waldo himself escaped to Bohemia, and died there. Many of his followers settled in the same country.

Almost everybody has heard and read of the Waldenses. We will not occupy valuable space with any account of the disputes respecting their origin. Some trace them to Peter Waldo, or to some other person of a similar name. Others